Cabral anchored the toughest back line in the Inland area and led the Sharks girls soccer team to a Big VIII League championship and to the quarterfinals in the ultra-competitive Division 2 playoffs in the Southern Section.

She was also the leagueâs defensive Player of the Year and an All-CIF-Southern Section selection in Division 2, feats which helped her along to a selection as this yearâs HS GameTime Girls Soccer Player of the Year.

âShe was more of the show-up, do-my-job, lead-by-example, donât-complain, and work-hard-while-battling-through injuries and battling-through-tough-spells kind of player,â Santiago coach Mike Fleming said. âShe wasnât necessarily the vocal person. She just has a quiet confidence about herself.â

It wasnât always that way. Early last season, Cabral spent a considerable amount of time on the bench and was seriously considering walking away from the Sharksâ program.

âI hadnât really played at all, and I had played like maybe five minutes at the most and sat on the bench for most of the games,â she said. âI was never really used to that â" it was frustrating, especially since I knew I could be out there helping my team.â

Cabral met with Fleming and he had her play a weekend tournament with the junior varsity team, a tournament, in fact, the Sharks won with Cabral on the pitch for nearly the entire tourney.

That experience sparked a turnaround. Cabral said she seized the opportunity and earned her way into more playing time with the varsity team.

âI learned not to expect anything,â she said. âI have to work hard and earn my spot. Itâs not just given to me.â

After a strong finish to her junior season, she set the tone as a senior for a Santiago team that relied heavily on its back line.

âWe knew what we had in her by just watching her on JV,â Fleming said. âShe was a solid player that was strong in the back. She had the tools. We thought with her in the right environment and maybe working with her a little bit, we would get what we saw in her and maybe a little more.â

Flemingâs instincts were right. As a senior this year, Cabral led a stifling Santiago defense that recorded 17 shutouts and allowed only six goals in Big VIII League play.

That defense was the main reason Santiago continued its success in the first season of the post-Amber Munerlyn era. Munerlyn, of course, was a four-year standout and a U20 national player who is now playing at North Carolina.

Santiago won its seventh consecutive league championship, finished the season 22-5-4 and won two playoff matches.

âI think it was really special to prove that we were actually a good team without Amber, because everyone believed we wouldnât be that good this year,â said Cabral, who is signed to play at Marymount California University, an NAIA school in Palos Verdes. âIt was good to prove that we could still go far.â

COACH OF THE YEAR

All Jacob Geverians has ever known as Redlands Citrus Valleyâs girls soccer head coach is section championships.

In his third season with the Blackhawks, Geverians led them to their third consecutive CIF Southern Section championship in 2014,as Citrus Valley defeated Oxnard Pacifica, 1-0, for the Division 6 title.

The Blackhawks were the only Inland-area team to win a section crown.

Citrus Valley (27-3-1) played its best soccer at the end, winning its final 17 matches consecutively. Despite that run, the team was denied a berth into the CIF Southern California Girls Soccer Regional.

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